Visit with Mommy

This afternoon, Alex came to see Mommy. He was so exicted, yet so tongue-tied. All he could speak about was his army men and his "Germans". Most of the time, he just said "Hi Mom" and "Let's go."

Friday, July 29

Playland - Again!

For one more time, Alex decided to go to Playland. We arrived at Playland at 1:30, more than 2 hours later than we expected to, but it was better than expected.

Alex surprised us with his wanting to go on the biplanes - not once but twice! He didn't surprise us too much though. All of the others were predictable: the boats, the antique cars, the swings, the antique cars again, the Macks. Then the arcade, predictably the car driving game. Unpredictably, though, there was a checking for the show at the close of day. Perhaps not "unpredictably", though.

Oh well, it's your day Baby. Ooops! I'm not supposed to call him that.

Tuesday, July 26

Laurie Berkner: Rock Star

We went to see Laurie Berkner today at the Tarrytown Music Hall and what a crowd it was!  I wish I had purchased tickets earlier than I did, since we had a better chance of getting floor tix then.  We took Diego all the way to Tarrytown and wound up getting there earlier than expected.  First, we walked to the Hudson river, but found no way of getting close to the shore.  Then we walked to an ice cream parlor (after locating the theater). 

  Alex had Cookie Monster flavored ice cream - a blue concoction flavored with chocolate chip cookies. Mommy had mint chocolate chip and Daddy had vanilla.   We all had waffle cone bowls.  They were so yummy!

Ice cream being consumed and all, we went off to the theater.  We waited sooooo long, but it was air conditioned and we didn't care.  (After that long walk up the hill from the river, who would?)  Alex grew excited as he saw more and more kids his age in the lobby, all waiting to see Laurie Berkner.  Wow. This WAS real, wasn't it?

Then came the moment of truth; a walk into the theater and walk up the stairs to our seats.  We sat in our seats for a while, but more and more kids started to show up.  Big kids, little kids - kids of all ages, even Mommy and Daddy's ages.  Alex's excitement grew.   He was beyond thrilled when the announcement came on.  But he was speechless when the Laurie Berkner Band came on stage. 

He took out Captain and Spencer just so they could see it too! (Then they got in the way of clapping and singing, so we put them away.)  I couldn't believe Alex was this excited to see her.  I wanted to keep snapping photos of him jumping up and clapping, but the dark theater and my closeness weren't doing it justice. 

At about a half hour into the show, she had a lull in the audience. It's mostly under 6 age group began to get restless, Alex included. That's when she broke into a Jack's Big Music Show medley.   It was time to get up and dance in the aisles!!!

Then Alex wanted to get down to the floor.  Since we were mostly through the show, we figured there wasn't much harm in doing so.   We walked downstairs and to a balcony on the second floor.  Alex wanted to go down even further.   We walked down to the stage level where Alex had seen enough.  It seemed his way of pinching himself to verify that it was all real.  Oh, it was real, all right.  Even more real were the Swedish Fish we bought in the lobby. 

Once on the lobby level, Alex decided it was time to go.  We hadn't even heard "We Are the Dinosaurs" yet and, despite my protestations that it was coming up, he wanted to leave.   We walked around and found a Greek diner not too far from the bus stop.  Then we waited at the bus stop for the bus home. 

All in all, it was a really fun day. 

Footprints to...wherever.

These footprints keep getting bigger. It wasn’t so long ago that I was so charmed at the little feet in the sand. They’re still little feet, just not as little as they once were. And, by now, the tide has swept these prints away

Saturday, July 16

Bigger, Better Things

A headache grabbed Mommy again this morning. So, we couldn’t get to a big trip today. We had to settle for our local beach for some fun. Alex insists that he doesn’t like the beach. “The sand gets in my mouth!”, he complains. We’ve advised him to try not touching his mouth while his hands are sandy. He hasn’t tried out our theory yet.

There was little complaining once we got there though. Alex dashed off for the sprinkler pond and ran all over the place. He loves to run AROUND the sprinklers, just not through them. “It’s too cold!” he tells me. Yeah, well, that’s the point.

We did some surf exploring too. Alex wanted to find a sea star like we did last year. Unfortunately, we couldn’t, but we did find some crab legs and claws along with snails that Alex wanted to adopt. I had to explain the fact that they would die without being in salt water for too long. Thankfully, he listened as Grandma Orquidea talked him into returning them. Although he’d really gotten them to show her. When he’d picked up a snail at first, he squealed with delight to watch it come out of its shell to grasp around for sand. “He doesn’t know what’s going on!” Alex declared. Yes, the poor thing probably thought he’d been captured by a bird.

Alex was a Big Boy when it came time to leave. Of course, the promise of gelato at Sal’s helped. Alex had Oreo flavor.

Saturday, July 16

Snips and Snails on Deck

We are truly entering a new phase from toddler to boy. Alex has set me straight on the names of some of our favorite haunts. From now on:

• Powell's Cartering shall now always be called "Powell's" and no longer "Captain Salty Dog's"
• The Barnacle restaurant shall now always be called "The Barnacle" and no longer "Jolly Joe's"
• Dunkin' Donuts shall now always be called "Dunkin' Donuts" and not "The Munchkin House"
• And "Great Captain Island" shall no longer be called "Pirate Island" but shall now be known as "Misty Island", after the island of Thomas the Train fame.

We're almost out of babyhood - almost.

Monday, July 11

July, the Unkindest Month Yet

I will be trying to keep the journal in a contemporary fashion from now on. But out of a year of hard months, July has been the hardest yet. On July 4th, in the ER of Sound Shore Medical Center, Mommy was diagnosed with a colloid cyst of the third ventricle - a benign cyst in the center of her brain. It will require surgery to remove. Shortly after the diagnosis, Daddy was fired from his job, owing in part to Mommy's diagnosis because Daddy's manager feared he would miss too much work in the future due to it.
We don't know what the rest of 2011 will hold for us now. We hope to keep an accounting of our happiest moments. At least that's what I'm trying to do.

Friday, July 1